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These three boys are infamous for the video they made of them brutally stabbing and beating a local man to death with a hammer and screwdriver. According to the wiki article:

Vadim Lyakhov, the survivor [of a previous attack that killed his friend], was initially placed under arrest, suspected of murdering his friend. He was reportedly denied access to counsel and beaten by police during questioning. However, it quickly became clear that he was not responsible for his friend's death

Clearly the pattern the Ukrainian authorities follow is "the closest person to the crime gets the blame".

To warn anyone even considering watching the video, look out. That video still haunts me, I've never seen a video that has gotten to me this badly. It is one of the darkest videos I've seen. It is definitely NSFL.

For anyone who's curiosity is too much to handle but doesn't want to watch the video and want's to sleep tight tonight, here's the relevant part from Wikipedia:

"The suspects' mobile phones and personal computers contained multiple video recordings of the murders taking place. One full video was leaked to the Internet, showing the murder of 48-year-old Sergei Yatzenko. He is seen lying on his back in a wooded area, and is struck repeatedly in the face with a hammer held inside a plastic bag. One of the attackers stabs Yatzenko in the eye with a screwdriver, and also stabs him in the abdomen with the screwdriver. Yatzenko is then struck with the hammer in order to ensure that he is dead. The attack lasts over four minutes, during which the victim lapses in and out of consciousness. One of the murderers can be seen smiling towards the camera during the video.[41] The murderers walk back to their car, showing that the crime took place only a few feet away from the side of a road, next to their parked car. They discuss the murder calmly, expressing mild surprise that the victim was still breathing after a screwdriver was plunged into his exposed brain. The suspects then wash their hands and the hammer with a water bottle, and begin to laugh. Only two suspects appear to be present in the video, with one always behind the camera."

Funny you should mention that, because "building immunity" or in other words training oneself to be more able to handle being exposed to shock/trauma/violence/etc is exactly what the leader of these killers was doing to himself and encouraged the others to do the same. Repeated exposure to this type of shit will numb your reactions to it. In my opinion, that is basically setting yourself up to become a sociopath.

You've never seen Japanese porn, then. I just found it interesting. I mean...what was he thinking, what was he feeling? His face was completely concave and filling with blood, but it was still moving. Was he conscious, or was that just a reaction? Did he even notice or care about them stabbing him with the screwdriver elsewhere?

Don't forget about Andre Chikatilo who blamed his killing spree of 56+ people on his inability to get an erection. I saw an interesting documentary about him a while back which made the strong case that the lack of transparency in Soviet-era media allowed people like Chikatilo to go on murdering for so long. Tons of people in this town were being murdered on a regular basis, but because the media didn't report it the towns people didn't know (or if they did hear about a murder assumed it was an isolated incident). No one knew to take precautions and be watchful of children and young women

If there is a pattern, I wouldn't blame it on the gene pool as much as on the decades of traumatic events (starting with the holodomor) that haven't been fully addressed or often even acknowledged. Many people managed to pull through, but being raised by generations of massively traumatized people is bound to screw some people up.

ETA: As diogenesbarrel points out, it actually started long before the holodomor (i.e. more than a century's worth of seriously fucked up happenings).

I am genuinely curious, is there a 'muslim run' (In the same way the US is 'christian run') country that has similar standards of living to places like the US, UK, Scandanavian countries etc? I'm not a big Geographical culture expert.

The standard of living in Kuwait, Qatar, and UAE are extremely high, far higher than the UK, US, or the Scandinavian countries. That is mainly due to money and wealth from natural resources, although Dubai (an autonomous state within the UAE) does not have oil of its own.

Bahrain and Saudi and Oman are ok in standard of living, but do have some poverty and lots of rural folk. I'd compare them to Poland or Croatia. All these countries mentioned thus far are run by Islamist governments of various shades. All of these countries are US and European allies, and all are protected by the US or do business with the US. Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE all have US military bases in them. None are democratic governments in the slightest.

The most comparable Islamic countries politically to Europe are Turkey and Indonesia. They have some semblance of democracy, and I'd even go so far as to argue that Turkey is more democratic and less corrupt than Italy, for example, although that's highly debatable. They are also muslim run, although with a democratic bend.

There might be other smaller countries that are also comparable to Europe, like Comorros or something, but I'm not knowledgeable on those really.

As TwentyLilacBushes said though, the real comparison here is between Muslim countries in the Middle East and North Africa with Christian countries in Africa that were also colonized recently. The Christian countries are faring no better at all. Keep in mind that Algeria saw a massive independence war not long ago with the French, and Libya's attempted colonization by Italy was spectacularly brutal. I once read that 25% of the male population of Libya was killed, although I find that figure suspect. The point is that these countries were raped, and their modern borders were put in place by the colonialists England and France, and have little to no actual relation to on-the-ground ethnic or religious realities. I could easily go way deeper into this if you want.

Colonies tend to badly compared to colonial powers. Western Europe, Turkey, Japan are former colonial powers and have fared well whereas other countries in Asia/Africa/Latin America/Eastern Europe have suffered. Malaysia/South Korea are probably the only major ex-colonies to have developed well, the only other ones have been small city-states like Singapore and Hong Kong.

Not really (maybe Indonesia?), but there have been in the past (e.g. Mosarabic Spain, 1950s Afghanistan and Iran, etc.). I would argue that the problem is that today's 'Muslim-run' countries are all in areas that are massively fucked-up and where it would be very hard to have good standards of living (actual democracy, personal safety/freedom, some wealth).

Comparing countries that have been on the benefiting end of a few centuries of colonialism to ones that have been on the afflicted end isn't really revealing. It's not as if Christian North African countries, Hindu South-Asian countries, Buddhist/other Southeast-Asian countries were any better off than those area's predominantly/officially Muslim ones.

Hopefully things will improve over the next few decades, eventually giving your question a positive answer.

Even if we acknowledge that religious institutions or ideas play a part in the larger set problems afflicting people in those places, the religious explanation is soooo insufficient. Unless you just think that people in those places are naturally more likely to be evil/stupid (I wouldn't be surprised if some of the "messed up religion" advocates actually did believe that), you still have to account for the historical and social factors making people vulnerable to such problems.

Thanks. I also only learned about it recently (and I'm almost thirty and interested in history!). I don't know why it is doesn't get discussed more often, especially in the context of the major atrocities of the 20th century.
If you have time, this is the documentary I first learned about it through: http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/episodes/2010/04/08/the-great-hunger-part-1-2/

At least the Ukrainian authorities didn't play off the torture and death of an innocent man as business as usual. I mean, the same thing could have happened in any country, and similar acts do seem to happen from time to time in the U.S. For example detainees dying while being held because the police in charge denied them medical care.

Lol I'm a former U.S. Marine. I spent 6 months in Iraq defending my country. My statement has absolutely nothing to do with attacking America. It does however show that bad things can happen to detainees in any country. It's not just a Ukrainian issue.

I want you to feel bad for equating the questioning of the conduct of one's country with "attacking" the country. You're exactly the type of person loved most by those shouting "If you question us, you're not a true patriot, and that makes you a terrorist!".

The way they handled Serial Killers over there was insane. If they weren't busy hiding the evidence for fear of ruining party unity they were blaming it on the gays. Another interesting story is that of Andre Chikatlio which was the centerpiece of the movie Citizen X. Watch it. It's good.

It's the truth. At some point all information gathered is pretty much worthless since the victim will eventually "confess" anything the torturers want to hear. It didn't work during the dark ages and it won't work now.

While in custody, he claimed that he killed in response to commands he was given by inner voices.

I'll never understand that defense. I mean, people tell me to do shit all the time, and I ignore them if they tell me to do something crazy. Like jump off a bridge. Discounting the fact that these killers are bat-shit crazy, just because the voices in your head tell you to kill families, that doesn't mean you have to listen to them!

If you ever actually went to a mental hospital or otherwise met someone in the midst of that kind of crisis, well you still wouldn't understand, but you would have some idea. And it would also scare the shit out of you.